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Repairs wrap up at Oak Ridge, but questions linger

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

(Updated Thursday, January 14 - 5:54 am)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — Following seven months of work and more than $1.6 million spent, Guilford County Schools officials still can’t say whether they’ve fixed whatever might have been sickening students and faculty at Oak Ridge Elementary .

Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green conceded during a news conference Wednesday that while work to improve indoor air quality and abate mold growth is complete, no one involved can say the school is safe, nor did anyone ever say it wasn’t.

Green repeated the words said several times by Guilford County Schools officials during Tuesday night’s school board meeting: The engineering firm hired to oversee the work had performed “clearance testing” with positive results.

Frederick McKnight, a representative with Turner Building Science and Design , said testing has been done to ensure that moisture and mold levels are within acceptable ranges.

However, when school board members asked if the testing results mean the school doesn’t present a health concern, school board attorney Jill Wilson was quick to point out that neither district officials nor officials with the engineering firm could answer that.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Green said he takes the clearance testing results as an indication the school is safe .

Parents who are not convinced the school is safe will be able to move their children to another school, he said.

Green closed Oak Ridge Elementary in June to address concerns about air quality. This fall, students and teachers were split up and sent to four locations for classes while work at the school continued.

The school will reopen on Feb. 22. Parents will have a chance to tour the school on Jan. 31.

Oak Ridge Elementary employees and students had complained of illnesses since the building opened in 2005 after undergoing major renovations and additions.

No group that has inspected the school, including the county health department, has definitively linked mold found there to the illnesses reported.

During summer, school officials brought in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as well as Turner to inspect the school. Both found mold and dampness.

The occupational safety agency considers dampness a public health problem that requires remediation.

The lack of a definitive conclusion is disappointing to some board members. “We accomplished zilch,” said board member Garth Hebert.

Faced with reports of illnesses and given the litigious nature of society, Hebert said the school board had little option but to close the school and do the work.

And while the district addressed all of the issues Turner found at Oak Ridge, there are no immediate plans, beyond what was already in place before the Oak Ridge issues, to address similar environmental health issues at other schools. District officials agree that many of the district’s schools have the same circumstances that Oak Ridge did, some with worse instances of leaks and water penetration.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

File photo (News & Record)

Photo Caption: Oak Ridge Elementary School.

SCHOOL BOARD INSIDER

Notes from Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting:

Board of Education Chairman Alan Duncan said the board will meet with the High Point and Greensboro police chiefs and the Guilford County sheriff at 9 a.m. Jan. 27 at the school district’s central office.

The school board requested the meeting after several board members and community members raised concerns about the use of Tasers by school resource officers.

The school board made a slight change in the timing for families to decide to leave a failing school. Some families whose children attend failing schools will be able to choose a new school to attend next month, months earlier than in years past.

The federal Title I program provides additional money to schools with high poverty rates that are historically low performing. If those schools fail to meet testing goals, sanctions are imposed including requiring the school district to offer families the option of attending another school in the district.

Previously, families at those schools have had to wait until late summer. The school board approved allowing families at seven failing schools to make those decisions next month.

Twenty others were not included because board members were worried it could send the wrong message to parents that their schools are failing even before test results are back.

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pragmatist

January 13, 2010 - 3:51 pm EST

Have we ruled out mass hysteria?

Garth

January 14, 2010 - 10:37 am EST

Critical Mass?

stafford5465

January 13, 2010 - 4:11 pm EST

Does the taxpayers that paid the 1.6 million have a right to know what the problem was? Why does the Board of Education hide behind their legal council's admonition that it is a "legal problem and should not be discussed"? How can they win their law suit against Lyon Construction when they don't what was wrong?

toxicmoldtruth

January 13, 2010 - 9:31 pm EST

This may be coming a little late in the game, but I still think schools officials, parents, students at Oak Ridge could benefit by applying remarkable mold research done by environmental expert Dr Ed Close. Simply diffusing a therapeutic-grade oil regularly in the school would likely result in an environment very hostile to mold. Moreover, numerous studies have shown breathing natural oils improves classroom performance. http://www.secretofthieves.com/mold.cfm/7954

Garth

January 14, 2010 - 10:35 am EST

"Transcendental Physics provides scientific proof of the existence of a non-quantum reality, a reality that both exceeds and incorporates physical materiality as a subset of Consciousness." - referring to Mr. Close's book -Transcendental Physics-. Please, if you want credibility do homework, self proclaimed experts are dangerous and while transcendentalism offers much for thought I will not use it for decision making purposes. Mold hysteria must be considered in balance with scientific research, of which little definitive has been accomplished and can be weighed in balance with sugar pill cures.

My own thoughts are that I have found little substance to both sides of debate and jury is still out. Just to add another variable to the mold debate - exposure to molds may actually boost immune system and "clean room" in fact promotes allergies and weakened immune systems.

There may be therapeutic value to incense and aroma therapy etc. I cannot and will not make decisions on a transcendental basis with the public dime, OK 1.6 mil is hardly a dime. I will be looking at findings very carefully to see how well the money was wasted - oops, I mean spent. Why are there more cases of asthma and respiratory illness in cities where you find less mold than in the country where it is everywhere?

OREmbarassedMom

January 14, 2010 - 2:11 pm EST

I wish the tv stations would quit interviewing all these moms that still think the school is unsafe, and talk to some of us who thought the school was fine to begin with. The fact is, the majority of the students were fine in the school, but now we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours cleaning and repairing it. Yet, these parents are still wanting more. Will anything satisfy them at this point? I think we now have the cleanest school in the county, if not the state, and I am more than ready to have my child back in there. I am positive it is a safer and cleaner environment than the one he's currently in at Oak Ridge Military Academy!

NoMoreSchoolMold

January 14, 2010 - 2:28 pm EST

Oak Ridge officials should release a full accounting of exactly what was done and the specific methods used, this is public money and the public is entitled to this. Then, this may be compared to the mold remediations methods listed on www.schoolmoldhelp.org - Information - Remediation section. The biggest question is: was it mold remediation or construction (renovation) that was conducted? In mold remediation, the spread of microbes is prevented, and the air and building are cleaned as the mold and contaminated materials are physically removed and thrown away. What about the contaminated school supplies, books, etc? Unless these questions were answered, to my satisfaction, I would not allow my child in the school. What's more, the public and all employees are entitled to these accountings.

OREmbarassedMom

January 14, 2010 - 7:32 pm EST

Have you gone to the Oak Ridge Environmental concerns link on the GCS website?!?!? There are reams of information there about the work that was done. The Turner report alone is several hundred pages. Books, desks,and supplies were wiped down as they were brought out of the school - there are videos on various tv stations' websites showing that process taking place. I think all your questions are answered, you just need to go to that website and start reading.